A commonly known problem related to stringed instruments is their natural tendency not to stay in tune. Temperature fluctuations are one major cause of this problem. As the ambient temperature increases, the pitch of instrument strings tends to become sharp, and conversely, as the temperature decreases, the pitch of instrument strings tends to become flat. As a result, musicians are required to re-tune their stringed instruments frequently. This problem is particularly acute for performing musicians, because the ambient temperature tends to increase rapidly during performances due to stage lighting. With conventional tuners, the performing musician's opportunities to tune an instrument during a performance are severely limited, since the attendant tuning process is cumbersome. For instance, with electric stringed instruments, the musician must divert attention away from the instrument and the audience in order to focus on a remotely located tuner which is connected to the instrument via an output cable. In the case of an acoustic stringed instrument, an additional difficulty exists; external noise contends with the sound from the string being tuned and interferes with the tuner properly discerning the string's pitch. As a result, it is generally practical for a performing musician to tune only before a performance or during breaks between sets, often resulting in unacceptably poor tuning during performance.
Attempts have been made in the art to provide stringed instruments with on-board or built-in tuners. However, no existing tuner has satisfactorily provided a convenient system that minimizes the time and effort required by a performing musician to tune a stringed instrument during the course of a performance.
International Application No. PCT/US89/02923 (Weise) discloses an integrated guitar tuning system, wherein a tuning circuit is built into a guitar, and a display comprising a pair of light emitting diodes (LEDs) is mounted on the surface of the guitar body. One LED is illuminated to indicate that the string being tuned is sharp, and the other LED is illuminated to indicate the string being tuned is flat. However, the display does not indicate which string is being tuned and does not indicate the degree to which the string is out of tune. In addition, the display is oriented outward from the front face of the guitar body such that the LEDs are visible to anyone viewing the front of the guitar, such as an audience.
International Application No. PCT/GB87/00302 (George) is directed to a tuning aid located on the front face of a guitar body, which includes: a dedicated pickup for sensing the pitch of the strings; and a row of LEDs situated beneath the strings. Each LED corresponds to a string and is illuminated when the corresponding string is played and in tune. Four additional LEDs are used to indicate whether the played string is in tune. One LED is illuminated when the pitch of the string is flat; a second LED is illuminated when the pitch of the string is sharp; and the final two LEDs are illuminated when the pitch of the string is in tune. The display is readily visible to one viewing the front of the guitar, such as the audience. However, the display is not conveniently located so as to be easily viewed by the musician while holding the guitar in a normal playing position. In addition, the sharp and flat LEDs do not indicate the extent to which the pitch of a string deviates from the in-tune reference pitch.
US Pat. No. 4,899,636 (Chiba) relates to a tuning apparatus which mounts on an external surface of an instrument via a suction cup and determines pitch by sensing vibrations via a piezoelectric element. The apparatus relies on vibrations being transmitted through the body of the instrument, and therefore is not suitable for stringed instruments such as electric guitars. The external mounting necessarily results in the tuning apparatus protruding from the instrument, which may be aesthetically or functionally undesirable to the musician. The display of the apparatus is an analog meter which requires a relatively large display area. Further, in order to properly attach to the instrument, the suction cup requires a substantially plane surface area, which limits the selection of desirable mounting locations.
Another problem encountered by performing musicians is the difficulty of switching from one instrument to another instrument during a performance. With an instrument having a conventional support strap and amplifier cord, the musician must first unplug the amplifier cord, and then remove both the instrument and strap by lifting the strap over the musician's head. Next, the second instrument, together with its strap, must be placed over the musician's shoulder, and the amplifier cord must be reattached. This procedure is awkward and time consuming and can only be accomplished when there is a significant amount of time between selections and rarely during performance.
In addition, stringed instruments with conventional straps tend to impart significant torque forces to the neck and shoulders of the musician, which, over time, can result in chronic pain or discomfort. This torque is caused by the inherent imbalance in the distribution of the weight of the guitar on the musician's shoulders. This problem is especially troublesome with instruments having a larger-than-conventional number of strings. For example, a six string bass guitar requires a larger and heavier headstock than a conventional four string bass guitar in order to accommodate the additional strings. In order to counter balance the additional weight of the headstock, the weight of the body of the guitar must be increased by approximately three times the additional weight of the headstock. This additional weight increases the torque forces experienced by the musician. In addition, ease of mass-production dictates that most stringed instruments have planar slab bodies. However, when the conventional instrument is held in a normal playing position, the slab body shape causes a significant amount of the instrument's mass to extend out from the musician's body, thereby contributing to the torque experienced by the musician through the strap assembly.
Finally, conventional stringed instruments, such as guitars, are shaped such that musicians are forced to hold the guitar in a different playing position while sitting than while standing. The lower portion of a conventional guitar includes a lower horn. When a musician is sitting, this lower horn rests against the musician's leg, thereby preventing the musician from orienting the guitar at certain angles. If the musician tends to practice while sitting and perform while standing, this limitation on the guitar's angular orientation leads to inconsistent playing conditions which may have an adverse affect on the quality of the musician's performance.